“No,” I said hastily. “No. You cannot stay in this room.” There may have been a note of consternation in my voice and I am quite sure I heard a sort of subdued snicker from the direction of the bed.
Corole heard it, too.
“What was that?” she whispered sharply, starting back against me. I shuddered aside from contact with that dripping monkey fur.
“Probably a cat,” I said at random.
“A cat!” I could feel her pull her short skirt tighter around her. “I hate cats. They remind me of—— I hate cats.”
“Corole, stay right here for a moment or two. Don’t move from the door! I shall come back and open the door, and you go as fast as you can through the corridor and as far as the general office door. Don’t let anyone see you if you can help it and wait there for me.”
She murmured something in assent and in less time than it takes to tell, I had manufactured errands to get the nurses into the diet kitchen and drug room, had watched Corole move with the lithe swiftness of an animal through the long shadowy corridor and myself had followed her. My own room was, of course, the only place where I could let her sleep. I even loaned her a night garment; she looked at its long sleeves and high neck dubiously but accepted it.
I gave myself the satisfaction of locking the door and carrying the key away; I did not know whether Corole heard the click of the key or not but I did not intend that Corole Letheny should be allowed to prowl at large through the dark corridors of St. Ann’s.
It was a little after twelve when I found myself in the south wing again. Maida was already there and Olma Flynn and the same little, blue-striped student nurse.
I don’t mind admitting that I slipped into the diet kitchen at my first opportunity and brewed myself a cup of very strong, black coffee. Corole’s advent had shaken my nerves a bit and I did not like the way the wind was murmuring around the corners of the great old building, stirring up forgotten drafts and rattling windows and slapping rain against them.